We know Kobe Bryant isn’t going to be ready to go at the start of training camp — he has yet to fully run on a treadmill at 100 percent, let alone get on the court and make cuts or do other basketball moves. Team officials dodge the timeline question but are understandably cautious.

Kobe says he thinks he will be ready to go in the Lakers season opener Oct. 29 against the Clippers.

“Now it’s about cutting the recovery time, I should be OK [for the start of the season],” Bryant said in an interview with The National, a website in Dubai.

We’ll see, he’s coming back from a ruptured Achilles and those can be tricky. The Lakers are trying to get him right and not rush him back, but I’m not about to question the will power, pain tolerance or healing powers of Kobe Bryant.

If the Lakers are going to make the playoffs in a deep Western Conference they have little margin for error — they need Kobe back early and playing well. They need some other things, too (Pau Gasol and Steve Nash to stay healthy, for one) but it kind of all hinges on Kobe.

His confidence in his return and in himself is both expected and good news for Lakers fans.